A week from CX Worlds, Brand skips Hoogerheide World Cup due to calf issue
World Cup leader Lucinda Brand has decided to skip Sunday's final World Cup round at Hoogerheide due to calf complaints. The Dutch veteran will focus instead on recovery ahead of next week's World Championships in Hulst, Netherlands.
Brand suffered her first significant off day this season at Saturday's World Cup Maasmechelen, never seeming herself from the start, and ultimately finishing 10th. That meant that her much-talked-about podium sweep was over, capping out at 63 with the previous weekend's win at Benidorm.
Lucinda Brand’s remarkable CX podium streak stops at 63
“It would have been cool if we had managed to equal Mathieu van der Poel’s streak. But that’s not the most important thing, right?”
Kit Nicholson
Though she misses the final round, Brand has already secured the World Cup overall, leading second-place Aniek Van Alphen by 111 points after Maasmechelen's 11th round.
